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Geocaching on the Amazing Race?


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This might have been discussed somewhere else, but I am unable to find it. I noticed on a preview of the Amazing Race for Sunday April 29th that one of the team members is holding a Garmin GPSMap 60cx, does anyone know if they are in fact searching for a geocache in that episode or are just trying to find a clue with the unit. It would be great exposure if it is in fact a geocache that they are looking for with the clue for their next pit stop.

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This might have been discussed somewhere else, but I am unable to find it. I noticed on a preview of the Amazing Race for Sunday April 29th that one of the team members is holding a Garmin GPSMap 60cx, does anyone know if they are in fact searching for a geocache in that episode or are just trying to find a clue with the unit. It would be great exposure if it is in fact a geocache that they are looking for with the clue for their next pit stop.

I have no idea, but it would be cool if they did. :anicute:

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This might have been discussed somewhere else, but I am unable to find it. I noticed on a preview of the Amazing Race for Sunday April 29th that one of the team members is holding a Garmin GPSMap 60cx, does anyone know if they are in fact searching for a geocache in that episode or are just trying to find a clue with the unit. It would be great exposure if it is in fact a geocache that they are looking for with the clue for their next pit stop.

 

Who knows if they will actually make mention of geocaching, but I'm sure they are following the GPS to find a location with their next clue (whether it is in something they call a "geocache" or not). This is the 2nd thing on this season that has reminded me of geocaching. The other is when they used those avalanche beacon devices to find the clues buried in the snow.

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This might have been discussed somewhere else, but I am unable to find it. I noticed on a preview of the Amazing Race for Sunday April 29th that one of the team members is holding a Garmin GPSMap 60cx, does anyone know if they are in fact searching for a geocache in that episode or are just trying to find a clue with the unit. It would be great exposure if it is in fact a geocache that they are looking for with the clue for their next pit stop.

It looked like a RINO unit to me, with the double antennas.

 

They've used GPS units before on AR. One season, the contestants had to travel by camel from one point to another, and were given GPSs as their only guide.

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This might have been discussed somewhere else, but I am unable to find it. I noticed on a preview of the Amazing Race for Sunday April 29th that one of the team members is holding a Garmin GPSMap 60cx, does anyone know if they are in fact searching for a geocache in that episode or are just trying to find a clue with the unit. It would be great exposure if it is in fact a geocache that they are looking for with the clue for their next pit stop.

It looked like a RINO unit to me, with the double antennas.

 

They've used GPS units before on AR. One season, the contestants had to travel by camel from one point to another, and were given GPSs as their only guide.

 

Yes it was a rino unit and I don't think they were looking for a geocache I believe it had something todo with a roadblock or something involving going somewhere using the gps. Now if ABC would just bring back the Treasure Hunter show that would be great ;)

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Just watched the show. Took place on the U.S. military base in Guam, for the most part.

 

It played out kinda like a multi. Contestants had to use their GPSRs to first locate a pilot hidden in the woods, then they were given a new set of coordinates to go to a spot where they radioed for a helicopter pickup. Some of the contestants got really close to the pilot at ground zero, but couldn't find him because he was camouflaged. Sound familiar?

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Just watched the show. Took place on the U.S. military base in Guam, for the most part.

 

It played out kinda like a multi. Contestants had to use their GPSRs to first locate a pilot hidden in the woods, then they were given a new set of coordinates to go to a spot where they radioed for a helicopter pickup. Some of the contestants got really close to the pilot at ground zero, but couldn't find him because he was camouflaged. Sound familiar?

Bummer. I was hoping that they would all race to a Wal-Mart parking lot. Now that would have been exciting.... B)B)
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Awesome, I want to go Helicaching! B)

 

Just imagine, rappel out of the chopper, run grab the cache, sign the log, and even trade some swag. Winch back in, and off to the next one.

 

I wonder if they make tree cutter blade tips for those smaller clearings. :cool:

There are some caches out here I like you to take me up to...Why hike when you can ride in style! B)
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Awesome, I want to go Helicaching! B)

 

Just imagine, rappel out of the chopper, run grab the cache, sign the log, and even trade some swag. Winch back in, and off to the next one.

 

I wonder if they make tree cutter blade tips for those smaller clearings. B)

 

Airmapper, check into ............... this one.

 

That is Cool! ;)

 

No chopper license for me yet, but I've got that itch to fly that seems to get worse every time I see a plane or helicopter. That spot on Amazing race gave me some more itch. :cool:

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A single member of each team had to take a pre-programmed rhino and find an air force 'pilot' hiding in underbrush. Once found, the 'pilot' entered in coordinates of a 'landing zone' area where the racer was then picked up by helicopter.

 

I would like to point out that the rhino does not have a compass, and it's very unlikely that the racers understood that the GPS determines your direction of travel by comparing recent fixes (ie, if you stand still the arrow is useless.) (aside: I am a fan of the electronic compass)

 

it was pretty amusing and I was suprised at how difficult a time some of them had with the task. There were some 'newbie' mistakes.

 

Dustin did well. she went followed her arrow, peeked into the bushes and there was her pilot. She had no problem reaching the landing zone either.

 

Danielle went crashing around in the underbrush for quite awhile before finding her pilot and also had trouble finding the LZ. It seemed like she might have been spending a little to much time looking at the arrow and not enough time looking at her surroundings.

 

Charla seemed to be traveling in circles and couldn't understand what her Gps was telling her. Her army 'handler' repeatedly told her not to push any buttons and then reset the rhino to the navigation screen for her. Lord knows how she got through it.

 

Oswald was funniest, to me. He followed the arrow reasonably well, but when he got close to the 'pilot' he just stopped. The crewman was back in the bushes, sitting and waiting (probably realistic) and Oswald walked back and forth, sort of expecting him to just 'be there'. Much like a first time cacher, he didn't go the extra 20 feet to actually look for and find the pilot.

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A single member of each team had to take a pre-programmed rhino and find an air force 'pilot' hiding in underbrush. Once found, the 'pilot' entered in coordinates of a 'landing zone' area where the racer was then picked up by helicopter.

 

I would like to point out that the rhino does not have a compass, and it's very unlikely that the racers understood that the GPS determines your direction of travel by comparing recent fixes (ie, if you stand still the arrow is useless.) (aside: I am a fan of the electronic compass)

 

it was pretty amusing and I was suprised at how difficult a time some of them had with the task. There were some 'newbie' mistakes.

 

Dustin did well. she went followed her arrow, peeked into the bushes and there was her pilot. She had no problem reaching the landing zone either.

 

Danielle went crashing around in the underbrush for quite awhile before finding her pilot and also had trouble finding the LZ. It seemed like she might have been spending a little to much time looking at the arrow and not enough time looking at her surroundings.

 

Charla seemed to be traveling in circles and couldn't understand what her Gps was telling her. Her army 'handler' repeatedly told her not to push any buttons and then reset the rhino to the navigation screen for her. Lord knows how she got through it.

 

Oswald was funniest, to me. He followed the arrow reasonably well, but when he got close to the 'pilot' he just stopped. The crewman was back in the bushes, sitting and waiting (probably realistic) and Oswald walked back and forth, sort of expecting him to just 'be there'. Much like a first time cacher, he didn't go the extra 20 feet to actually look for and find the pilot.

 

It was the Amusing Race tonight! B)
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Loved that part of the episode! I knew their units must not have had an electronic compass, based on how they would stop in place and try and turn to face whatever way the arrow was pointing. I was smacking my wife (lightly) saying: Walk fast! In a straight line! Then correct! We all would have done much better.

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"Ma'am, I told you not to touch the buttons."

 

Good episode, except that with the 30 minute penalty from previous leg, there was never any doubt about who would get sent packing, and who would be in the final 3. For the 1st time ever, there's only 1 guy in the final, which means there's a 2 out of 3 chance that an all-female team will finally win.

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The last episode (#11) of Amazing Race All Stars on Sun 4/29/07 the teams are at the U.S. Naval Base Guam and the Road Block challenge was that one team member had to participate in a mock search and rescue mission to find a pilot by using a GPSr to locate him. The pilot would then reprogram the GPSr for the Landing Zone where a helicopter would extract them.

 

Each team member participating is given a Garmin Rino 520!

 

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=146&pID=6406

 

There is a closeup of the GPSr on map mode with a destination waypoint labeled PILOT but the Map Pointer coordinate is:

 

N 33 55.054 W 118 23.356

 

Hey, that's not in Guam! That's in parking lot in El Segundo, CA (near LAX)!

 

I drove by there this morning and it is the parking lot of the Los Angeles branch office of China Airlines. The teams all flew on China Airlines from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong on a previous episode.

 

When the contestants have difficulty or accidentally push a button on the GPSr the screen shows ERROR with a big Yellow X or the detail screen says "GPS ERROR". When I saw the show I was thinking my Garmin never says "ERROR" or "GPS ERROR" but watching closely I realized they programmed in a Waypoint with name ERROR and Note: "GPS ERROR" and coordinates again in El Segundo, CA.

 

The coordinates for both ERROR screens shown are:

 

N 33 55.053 W 118 23.365 and

N 33 55.053 W 118 23.362

 

And later a shot of LZ (Landing Zone) destination but the coordinate is:

 

N 33 55.076 W 118 23.384

 

Again in that same China Airlines parking lot in El Segundo, CA.

 

Later we see other waypoints that are actually on the US Naval Base Guam like:

 

N 13 26.343 E 144 38.286

 

Which was used for screen shots of waypoints PILOT1, PILOT3, and Route to LZ but those three locations should all have had different coordinates but they were all the same.

 

Another screen shot shows a waypoint "HELO CALL" with an auto generated Note of "13-DEC-06 15:37" and coordinate:

 

N 13 26.011 E 144 38.345

 

Also, the contestants would be talking saying things like the GPSr told them "Arriving at Pilot", "Time to Pilot 2 mins 22 sec", "0 Feet Off Course" In each case the next scene was a close up of the waypoint detail screen with the "Note:" field filled in with one of the phrases above.

 

A Geocacher would have beaten those contestants easily. It was fun to see the Garmin Rino 520 and the screen shots. Too bad all the screen shots were not real; done later or earlier in Guam and/or El Segundo.

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A Geocacher would have beaten those contestants easily. It was fun to see the Garmin Rino 520 and the screen shots. Too bad all the screen shots were not real; done later or earlier in Guam and/or El Segundo.

 

They do occasionally have to shoot inserts. There's a certain amount of "fudging" used, to keep the focus on the teams, rather than on the process of filming the teams (which is no simple feat). For example, you always seem them buying plane tickets for the 2 team members, but in fact they usually have to buy 4 (for the camera and sound men). If there are only 3 seats available, they're not allowed to take them. The teams have to stick fairly close to the AV crew, which is why the teams don't split up when doing things like running around an airport looking for the fastest routes.

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Just watched the show. Took place on the U.S. military base in Guam, for the most part.

 

It played out kinda like a multi. Contestants had to use their GPSRs to first locate a pilot hidden in the woods, then they were given a new set of coordinates to go to a spot where they radioed for a helicopter pickup. Some of the contestants got really close to the pilot at ground zero, but couldn't find him because he was camouflaged. Sound familiar?

 

 

You are correct! This is really a great show and good to see multiple closeups of the Garmin GPSr. Kind of funny how the contestants got so close, yet could not find the hidden pilots! :blink:

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Yes it was a rino unit and I don't think they were looking for a geocache I believe it had something todo with a roadblock or something involving going somewhere using the gps. Now if ABC would just bring back the Treasure Hunter show that would be great :D

 

 

Treasure Hunters was a great show, maybe they might bring it back. :D I just recently visited a cache site was shot in the first episode. The team that ended up winning the million actually got lost in episode 1. The clues would have lead them to Mt.Rushmore, but instead they went to Mt.Roosevelt. :blink:

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